A second person has died in connection with a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in New York City that has infected dozens of residents, health officials said, while adding that the suspected source of exposure has “likely been eliminated.”
The New York City Department of Health announced the latest death in a statement Saturday. Officials did not release the person’s name, age or any details about when they became ill, mirroring the limited information provided Friday when the city confirmed the first death linked to the outbreak on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
The department also has not identified the precise source of the outbreak. As of Saturday, at least 72 people had been sickened, including nine who remained hospitalized and 50 who had been discharged after receiving care.
Still, New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Alister F. Martin said the latest data offered a hopeful sign. According to the statement, the city’s “aggressive strategy of testing, enforcement and remediation” targeting cooling towers on top of large buildings “appears to have stopped the source of exposure.”
Cooling towers and similar air-conditioning systems can disperse water vapor that may contain the bacteria responsible for the illness.
“We directed every building with an initial positive test result to immediately clean and disinfect its cooling tower, and every one has completed that work,” Martin said in the statement. “We have also reminded cooling tower operators across the city of their summertime requirement to increase use of biocides that kill” the Legionella bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease.
The city launched those actions after two people were confirmed on July 2 to have contracted Legionnaires’ disease, a severe form of pneumonia. Health officials reported an average of more than eight new confirmed cases each day through July 8.
By contrast, the pace of new infections slowed sharply afterward, falling to fewer than one new case per day between July 10 and July 17.
“We will continue inspecting every cooling tower that tested positive and will hold accountable any owner who fails to comply with our public health laws,” Martin’s statement said.
According to the city, tests identified either living or dead Legionella bacteria in cooling towers on more than 75 Upper East Side buildings. They include museums, private schools and apartment houses.
The statement also expressed condolences to those grieving the people who have died amid the outbreak.
Legionnaires’ disease is treatable but kills about 10% of patients, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bacteria that causes the sickness grow in warm water and can proliferate in cooling towers, hot tubs and showerheads.
People can contract cases of legionnaires’ disease by inhaling tiny droplets of contaminated water. It doesn’t spread person to person.
In August 2025, seven people died and more than 100 were sickened during a legionnaires’ disease outbreak in New York’s Harlem neighborhood.
New York’s health department says the disease was named legionnaire’s after a 1976 outbreak of the sickness in Philadelphia largely affected people attending a state convention of the American Legion, the war veterans’ non-profit organization.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
